New Orleans Trip Day 1: All Aboard!

[days_unfolding]

I really need a break from homework, so I'm finally starting my New Orleans travelogue. I have a free trial of journaling software that resides on my laptop called The Journal. Like I really need yet another journal, but the nice thing about it is that I can write and save entries in increments over several days. I even can embed pictures in the entry. When I'm finished with an entry, I can post the entry to Live Journal from the software, which will generate HTML for the entry, including the pictures, but I'll have to modify the URLs of the pictures. Pretty cool.

Anyways. All aboard!

Despite trying to be hyper-organized, and packing over a few days, I still didn't get a lot of sleep the night before the trip. We were ready before the cab arrived, and the cab arrived on time. I kept fighting the feeling that something was going to go wrong--Amtrak would lose our reservations, the hotel would lose our reservations, I forgot something important, etc. The feeling was worse because I planned the trip. My mom enjoyed the fact that she just had to show up.

We arrived at the train station an hour before the train was supposed to arrive. We had decided to go to a "whistle stop" in a nearby suburb, rather than go to the main station in downtown Detroit. I was surprised by how many people showed up at the stop, somewhere around 20 people.

The train arrived, and I managed to wrangle my luggage onboard with the help of a conductor. My mom helped me to get it on the rack above our seat. (My mom had a more sensible amount of luggage than I did.) Then I realized that my ticket, which had been in a pocket of my purse, was missing.

I ran outside to look for the ticket, but did not find it. I told the conductor, who also looked for the ticket. I thought that they would kick me off of the train because it was full; they announced that no one without a ticket could board. However, the conductor just said "We'll take care of it." Amtrak people were consistently nice and gave good customer service during the entire trip.

So the first part of the trip I spent trying to calm down. The scenery was interesting. We followed a river for a long time (which reminds me--I was going to check a map to see what river it was). We passed several small towns with old houses and farms. I found it somewhat frustrating, though, that as soon as I saw something interesting, it would disappear quickly.

My mom and I took turns going to the dining car for something to eat. I dozed off a couple of times.

The trip from Royal Oak to Chicago took about six hours, an hour longer than a car trip.

When we arrived at Union Station, I took my luggage off of the rack--and there was the ticket, under my suitcase. I looked around for a conductor to give it to, but didn't see one.

Union Station was packed with people. It didn't have a lot of signs to guide you. We wandered around a little, and then saw a counter at which to check luggage. We each checked a bag and kept a bag as a carryon. The person at the counter told us to go to the lounge for first-class passengers. (Everyone who was in a sleeper compartment was a first-class passenger.) We found the lounge. It was fairly nice. It had a lot of stuffed chairs and a television. It had free coffee and soda, and a restroom that was private to the lounge.

Eventually, an Amtrak employee walked us out to the train, the City of New Orleans. We found our "roomette", and were shocked at how small it was. It had room for two large seats facing each other, with a fair amount of legroom, and that was it. Some passengers in other roomettes, who were getting off in Memphis, were drinking wine and ran around talking to the other passengers, including us. When we started moving, I tried to take pictures of the Chicago skyline, but most of the pictures came out blurred.

They called the passengers for dinner. The dining car was packed, and we wound up sitting with a chatty guy and his son. A three-course dinner was included in the price of the ticket, but the kitchen had mechanical problems, so they served us only a sandwich and chips, which I devoured.

When we got back to our roomette from dinner, the conductor came by and made up the two bunks. (The two chairs turned into one bunk, and another bunk lifted down from the ceiling.) My mom and I sat in the lower bunk, which felt like a cozy cave, for a while. I was determined to stay up until after we stopped in Champaign-Urbana, home of my alma mater, the University of Illinois. I didn't recognize the C-U station, even though I took the train back-and-forth to Chicago when I was in school.

After we left Champaign-Urbana, we decided to go to sleep. The room was too small to change clothes in, so we slept in our clothes. I crawled into the top bunk with difficulty. The space between the bunk and the ceiling was too small to sit up in. I normally sleep on my side, but the rolling of the train made me feel like I was going to fall out of the bunk. I discovered that lying on my stomach helped with the rolling sensation. I still felt like I was never going to fall asleep, and therefore would be exhausted when we arrived in New Orleans. The next thing that I knew, it was the next morning, and we were stopped in Memphis.

Click pictures to expand.

The train stopped at a station.

The side of the sleeping car.

Kalamazoo Station, with a sign giving the distance to Detroit and Chicago.

Our "roomette," with my mom for scale.

Another view of  the "roomette".

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I haven't been on a train since before Amtrak, but I did take one trip by myself from Minnesota to South Dakota in jr. high. Dining car dinner and all. Fun trip. Milwaukee Road train, I think.

The roomette idea sounds ok, except for the cramped sleeping part.